Player Information

Name: Talia "Bliss" Belser
Age: 35
Contact details: At Discord @ Talia "Elli" B#4698 or via

taliadoesrp or my Plurk,

therealbliss
Other characters: Deedee Yeowoo (Isekai/Online)

Character Information

Name: Lord Hades
Canon: Hades
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: OU

World info:
A world of Greek myth, set almost entirely in the house of Hades - its underworld. An eternal, shifting prison for the souls of the dead, divided between the noble house of the Cthonic gods at the lowest levels, then going upwards towards the land of the living, in order: the cold sterile jail of Tartarus, the incandescent lava lakes of Asphodel, and the rewards for the valiant of the gardens of Elysium.

From there is a gateway, guarded by the three headed ~~best boys~~ hound Cerberus, that none can pass... leading into the lands of Achaea now called Greece, frozen in eternal winter as all suffer the cold anger of the lady of seasons named Demeter - for her daughter, Persephone, goddess of the verdant fields, has escaped the sight of both Olympus and the Cthonic Gods alike. And grim Hades would for the maiden of the corn's sake have it no other way...

History:
Seldom understood is the grim Lord Hades and his motivations, for the circumstances of his deep malaise are a secret well-kept by the dark lord of the dead. To understand him, you must first understand his outrage at Zeus, the lord of Olympus - the grim lord's anger that the master of thunderbolts would gift him a woman, as consolation for the position in the Underworld that Zeus himself would put him in. Gift, as if she was not a person with her own hopes and will and opinions, her own life; gift, and make an Olympian his slave.

This woman, as you may well have guessed, was Persephone. And with Demeter none the wiser!

It was, ironically, Lord Hades noble efforts to made it clear that the bright lady Persephone was under no obligation to him that sealed their fate. In time, the lady that Hades refused to enslave grew to love him of her own accord; and, likewise, did the grim lord return her affections, in his stoic way.

But it was the consummation of this love, the fire-blooded god of life named Zagreus, that destroyed the house of Hades. For in that was proof that Hades had "accepted Zeus' gift," and the wrath of Demeter might reach Hades and Persephone; might rip them from each other and cause the heavenly host to make war upon the ashen hosts. They could not allow this news to destroy both realms.

And so Hades lied to Persephone, and drove her away to her own life - above the notice of the Houses of Hades, and beneath the notice of Olympus. He told her, truthfully, that Zagreus had died as he was born - omitting the crucial detail that this was no impediment to his survival in the houses of the dead; and, heartbroken, Persephone left to her gardens, veiled by the lady of Night named Nyx, who became Hades second and beloved wife.

But lies tend to grow in size the more often they are repeated, and Zagreus always knew in his heart that he was no child of Nyx. One night, the son of the lively lady and the deathly lord discovered his true parentage; and since that day, aided by the dead, the Olympian, and the Cthonic alike who sympathize with him (and, in truth, who would dare mend the broken heart of Hades), the Houses of Hades have never known rest as the willful Zagreus dares defy his grim father and daily attempts, perhaps in vain, to slip past the gate to the living and find the mother he was denied by Fate...

Canon point: The beginning of the game.
Age: Immortal, ageless, and adult - even patriarchal - in aspect. I play him as well into his midlife crisis.

Personality:
Hades is not a kind man, and not a good father to Zagreus. Willful, stubborn, prone to taking out anger on those he deems lesser than him, the mirthless Lord Hades has become both cruel and stern. Which is not to say that his entire character is ignoble; what he does he does out of both anger at the injustice done to Persephone and to him, and out of a misplaced desire to protect his House, including Zagreus.

But while I can argue he was once a good person, and that it's possible for him to reclaim that nobility he's forgotten... Hades is, at the beginning of Zagreus' tale, no longer fit to rule his House.

His sense of humor, while it exists, is dry, acerbic, sarcastic. He finds no joy in life, and doesn't see why anyone else should, in death or in his House.

He still feels satisfaction at a job well done, expects perfection from his underlings... and is pleasantly surprised when he gets it, though he will couch this in terms of being satisfied rather than being pleased. And never let it be said that he does not justly and richly reward those who serve him loyally and well. But defy him, and you will feel his displeasure. Which is not a good trait for someone in power to have.

I think he must feel a weird sense of pride in Zagreus overcoming his traps and snares, even as he makes it even harder for him the next time he runs; after all, Achilles taught him to fight, and Hades bade Achilles do so, so in a way this is Zagreus honoring his teachers. I don't think the irony escapes him.

He expresses his love for his children - Zagreus, yes, but also Hypnos and Thanatos - in the distant way of making sure all their needs are provided for, and in the setting of what he feels to be high but reasonable standards - after all, meeting them it meritorious in and of itself. If he were more pleasant about it, his style of parenting would be recognizable to the Cleavers from Leave It To Beaver.

I do think he's more pleasant to people who aren't reminders of his failure to protect Persephone, which is not much of the cast of Hades; he would need to affect professional diplomacy, and we see hints of him being cordial during endgame when things go better than anyone could have expected. Call this is fan conjecture, supported by the text.

Character changes: Getting advice from people who aren't wrapped up in everything that the Greek gods choose to be will do wonders for his ability to extricate himself from the shitty hand Fate played him and think rationally about it, which is normally one of the cold lord's strengths. He'll still fall into patterns of being bristly and unpleasant, but this may help him recognize that he's doing so and adjust - it would not do to give strangers a false and unwelcoming impression of the Cthonic Houses, after all.

He will also be incredibly annoyed by all of these strangers from other worlds dying, getting shuttled off to his realm by accident, and attempting a Daily Challenge Run, and will swiftly try to make arrangements with other underworlds to take these turkeys off his hands so he can't claim they escaped from his realm (that's on the other underworlds).

Capabilities:
He fights like Zagreus, but is better at it, using a spear and firing fuckoff huge death lasers and summoning the dead to harrass him. He can reconfigure the maze leading out of his hall with a pull of a lever (thanks, Daedalus?). Only one person in Hades ever escapes the prison maze he's made of Hades, and that's Zagreus... temporarily. There is no escape.

He is also good at bureaucracy and paperwork, which we can tell because he's not literally drowning in it when we see him sign for literally everyone who has ever died at his desk. Part of this is that he's learned to appropriately delegate. He can host lavish parties, when he's inclined to. All of the riches of the Underworld are his to command and he's obscenely wealthy because of it, which helps with such fetes.

Hades is also a master of Dad Jokes. Explaining how I know this is spoilers, but trust me on this.

Sample: Here!

Notes: seriously how does he get his beard to do the thing?